Pied de Vache Early French military musket

[albatrosdva]

I am new to the forum so I am posting some of my interesting guns. This musket is made before the first French standard musket model 1717. It was made by Robert Carrier of the St Etienne arsenal some time between about 1690 and 1710 when they started making the lock profile flat instead of the round banana shape like this one. Unfortunately it was cleaned back to "in the white". They did a rather nice repair of the stock back from half stock to full stock with fabrication of the barrel band and two ramrod pipes. The barrel is three stage and a little over 47" and .75 caliber. The bayonet is original to the musket and is most oddly shaped, almost like a spontoon. Early French musket

 

[bnail]

Welcome aboard Sam!
that's a remarkable musket.:thumbsup:
Is that steel hardware I see?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Astounding that the wood shows no signs of shrinkage after almost 300 years. It must have been kept under ideal conditions.

 

[albatrosdva]

Yes the hardware is all steel, just poorly cleaned :-(. There is very minimal shrinkage around the lock and virtually none elsewhere on it. I suspect since it is such an unusual early flintlock that a museum took care of it a good portion of its existance. it was of course at some point used as a fowler since the stock was shortened. Thank goodness the barrel was not cut down at the same time. Nice of them to keep the original bayonet also. The French created the socket bayonet in the 1680s and this one has got to be an early one. Considering that there were still matchlocks being used by the French military until 1699 it is entirely possible that this gun was used at the same time as matchlock, which I think is fun to picture.

 

[tg]

Maybe it's just me as I have had a bad eye for as few days or the angle of the photo, I know from seeing different shots of mine that the angle can make a big difference in photos, but does that have the curve in the comb to be what would be called a cows foot compared to what many sell today as a 1717 musket? BTW that is a uniquely beautifuly preserved gun be it cows, horse of chicken foot in shape.

 

[albatrosdva]

I realize that the pictures are rather poor but it was hard to get good pictures of the angle of the stock given the length of the gun. It is the correct cows foot with the fatter butt stock before the butt plate. It has a cut in comb like later French muskets. It is neat like you point out to see the creation of later forms of French models in this musket. The friend I got it from said he had had it for about 20 years and had looked for one for the previous 30. They are hard to come by.

 

[tg]

I was not intending to insult your photography skills please take no offense, it is interesting that the military used this stock style that early but it did not show up in the civuilian/militia FDC or Trade guns till decades later, I once though I had a moderate working knowledge of then French guns of the early 18th century and find now that I am back to square one :hmm: , but I think I will find more pleasure in shooting them than studying them from now on.

 

[albatrosdva]

Well when you consider that Robert Carrier was one of the gunsmiths that offered prototypes for the creation of the 1717 then it becomes easier to rationalize why some features stayed around longer then it may have been previously realized. I am sure your knowledge of French muskets is more than adequate.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Is it marked with Robert Carrier's stamp?

 

[albatrosdva]

Yes, the R.C is on the lock. Sorry, it is so shiny it is hard to get a detailed picture.

 

[Mike Brooks]

How do you feel about the stock? Do you think it is the original? I kind of get the feeling it may have been a 1730 ish restock of a 1690's gun. I only bring this up because of the curvature of the bottom of the buttstock. Comparing it to other french military guns I have seen of this era the lower buttstock line should be straight or nearly so.

 

[albatrosdva]

I think that the stock is original from the late 1600s to early 1700s but the resources I know in this era are few. If you could provide reference to other works on this I would most appreciate it. The resources that my friend provided for me show several of the prototypes for the 1717 and a couple have the straighter lines like you are talking about and one or two have lines like mine so I am just not certain. I think in this day before standard, it just depends on who made it and when they made it as an individual's work varied a lot from year to year.

I have attached a few better images of the stock and a better closeup of the lock markings.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Steel or wood rammer?

 

[albatrosdva]

I do not have one for it, but it would have been a wooden one.

 

[Mike Brooks]

For pictures of the original stocking of your gun see "THE FRENCH TRADE GUN IN NORTH AMERICA 1662-1759" by Kevin Gladysz. Page 49.